Forest of Folklore
by Fire.Dragon.Slayer.Syd
Summary: Lucy finds herself lost in 'The Forest of Folklore' where she finds a dragon-boy named Natsu and his exceed Happy. They become best friends, but does it stop there? Read to find out! This is so far my favorite of the stories I'm writing so I might update it more frequently so stay tuned!
1. Chapter 1

The 'Forest of Folklore'

By:FireDragonSlayerSyd

Song: nightcore 'say something'

"LUCY-NEE! LUCY COME ON! THIS IS'NT FUNNY ANYMORE!" a little 10 year old frantically called for his little sister, "LUCY-NEE!" he was scared now, he was on the brink of tears, "LUCY-NEE!" the 10 year old, Luke, touched his cheek, He was crying, why? Because he lost his little sister, in the 'Forest of Folklore'. It was _his_ idea to come here, _his_ idea to stay until dark, _his_ idea to go looking for danger, _his_ idea to play hide and seek, and now she's lost, it's _his_ fault for losing her. And now she's gone. _Forever_. He ran home crying.

"Luke!?" a scared little 8 year old called for her older brother, "Onii-chan? It's not funny…" she felt a cold, wet, streak appear across her cheeks. "Luke-nee!" she cried, "Luke! I'm scared!" she tripped on the branch of a fallen tree, she cried out as he felt her leg scrape a nearby rock, she could feel a smooth liquid roll down her leg as looked at the frozen night sky where the stars were dimming. Her tears fell faster and harder, "L-L-Luke-nee?" she mumbled, "I'm scared…" and her arms dropped to the fallen leaves, covered in frost due to the harsh cold nights of winter. She curled into a small ball and let the storm of emotions crash around in her body and come pouring out of her eyes to result in a puddle of tears appearing on the ground, she cried until there were no more tears left to cry and she fell asleep.

When Lucy opened her eyes she was met with a small red blanket wrapped around her small, fragile figure and a pillow made of small scraps of fabric underneath her head. She also noticed a small bandage wrapped around her injured knee to stop the bleeding. She was lying on a stone in the shape of a bed, she studied her foreign surroundings; she soon came to the conclusion that she was in a cave, with a small accumulation of fabric in the shape of a cat bed sat beside the stone bed she was on, and in front of her was the wall of the cave, there was light shown on the other wall to her right to signify there was an entrance to her left. She got up and made her 'bed', she's been taught to always make her bed when she gets up, and she slowly crept over to the light. The closer she got the clearer she could hear… voices?

"-ppy, what do you think her name is?" she could hear a young, masculine voice say. "I don't know Natsu, but she looks like an Adrienne? Or a Grace?" she could hear a smaller higher pitched voice respond

"No," the one called 'Natsu' said, "Maybe like a Luigi?" and she somehow knew he was giving a sheepish grin, "Natsu! That's not a girl's name!" the other exclaimed, "Well sorry Happy, I don't live with humans, so I don't know anything about them" Lucy's breath hitched, _he's not human?_ But it seems she wasn't the only one that heard that. "Did you hear that?" Panic flooded her system; _he heard that?! I need to get out of here!_ But before she was able to do anything she saw a small soft spike of pink stick out from the other side of the wall, her body was drowning in adrenalin, her muscles were twitching to run but she was frozen in place. The single pink spike soon turned into a mass as a head covered in them soon rounded the corner, and she just stood there, rooted in fear, as the figure of a boy soon came into view. "Happy! She's awake!" he called towards the room he came from, he then turned back to Lucy and her body jerked back even though he was giving a genuinely friendly smile. Her eyes were still wide open and her arms stick straight along with her legs. Her body rigged and leaning slightly back, the young boy seemed to notice her fear as he gave her a friendly grin as he held his hand out; "Hi! My name's Natsu Dragneel!" Lucy took a step back and bumped into the stone bed, sat down then immediately curled into a ball and started crying. Natsu noticed this and he dropped his grin as his face morphed into worry as he plopped himself next to her and slowly placed his hand on her back in a comforting manor, Lucy didn't seem to notice as she was too busy crying her out her feelings. Natsu moved his hand gently across her back in an effort to calm her down; "Calm down there, you're safe with me, I'll protect you. Whoever made you cry is going to suffer, just…calm down, I'm here to protect you." Natsu said with sincerity as he looked down with sorrow and worry to his little blonde friend. Lucy turned to face him; her eyes filled to the brim with unshed tears, red and puffed up from the tears that had been shed and have been soaked up into her full cheeks. Neither of them said anything, as Lucy was debating whether or not to trust him, but before she could make up her mind Natsu hugged her. Lucy's eyes went as wide as saucers looking at her pink-haired 'attacker', Natsu felt her tense up when he went for the hug, but after a little while she slowly began to relax into him and ended up hugging him back. So they just stayed like that, hugging each other until Lucy broke the hug when she calmed down, "where am I?" her voice was raspy and scratchy from her crying, "You're in my cave, my home." Natsu replied sheepishly scratching the back of his neck. Lucy giggled slightly at his shyness but then asked "Who was the second voice I heard?"

"Second voice-? Oh! You mean Happy! He's one of my best friends, he's an exceed!" Natsu said enthusiastically "get over here Happy! She wants to meet you!" A blue cat then walked in, on his back paws, from the room that Natsu came from and waved to her "Hello! My name's Happy!" Lucy just sat there. She rubbed her eyes wondering if this were a dream, but when she re-opened them she was met with the same boy with pink hair and his talking blue cat. He just grinned at her, "No, it's not a dream we're real!" Lucy was still un-moving, soaking it all up, but then she jumped to her feet; "LUKE! Where is he!? Where's Onii-chan?!" she was frantically searching high and low for her brother "Luke?" Natsu repeated, cocking his head to the side thinking "wasn't he the guy you were yelling for?"

"YES! Have you seen him?!" she asked. "No… What does he look like?"

"Uh, like me, he's my brother," she said starting to tear up a bit, "short blonde hair… big black eyes like the night sky-" but she hiccupped, she was crying. " _Not again…_ " Natsu muttered under his breath as he tried to comfort her again.

After a while she calmed down and started heading towards the exit of the cave, "Where do you think you're going?" Natsu asked leaning on the wall of the cave, "To look for Onii-chan." She said with an air of authority, "Oh no you aren't, you'll get lost in there!" Natsu exclaimed standing up straight getting ready to stop her if need be. "Lost where?" Lucy then looked out of the mouth of the cave and saw the familiar trees of the 'Forest of Folklore' her breath hitched. She raised her cupped hands to her mouth and screamed; "LUKE-NEE!" her hands dropped to her sides and they formed fists "anyone… please…" She whispered before she fell to her knees. Natsu rushed to her side and hugged her tight to him as he pet her soft golden locks whispering little nothings until she calmed down. "Why…? Why…?" Lucy kept repeating to which Natsu couldn't reply. "Hey, why don't I introduce you to some of my friends? I'm sure you'll make great friends with them too, they can help look for your brother, sound good?" Lucy just weakly nodded. But it wasn't until they got up that Lucy actually got a good look at Natsu; He had pink spiky hair that went in all directions, piercing dark onyx eyes, and when he smiled you could see his large and sharp fangs. But that wasn't all, he has red scales around his ears, cheeks, on his arms, and on his legs as well. And if you looked for it you could see little horns sticking up through his hair. "W-What are you?" Lucy asked cautiously taking a small step back, "I'm a dragon!" Natsu exclaimed happily but seeing her take another step back he turned away and solemnly looked to the floor, "I see… I'm still scary aren't I? I thought I proved myself by protecting you and taking you in from the cold winter, but I guess humans don't change do they?" Natsu said as he gave a laugh, but it wasn't his normal laugh filled with happiness. This one was filled to the brim with sadness. Lucy's eyebrows wove together in sadness and she relaxed and took a step towards him engulfing him in a hug from the back. "It's not that, it's just… I'm lost, I'm scared, I've never been away from my family for this long before and I miss them." Natsu turned in the hug and hugged her back, "I miss my mommy telling me goodnight stories about the stars, and daddy and Onii-chan playing ball with me," she sniffled a bit, "Me dragging Luke-nee to play dolls with me," they both giggled at that. "I miss them." Natsu hugged her tighter. There was a moment of comfortable silence as they hugged each other tight, but then Natsu spoke; "My father left me a year ago." Lucy's eyes shot open in surprise, "I thought he would come home… but he never did," Natsu sniffled and Lucy felt a drop of water on her shoulder, Natsu was crying. "I went to sleep next to him, but woke up alone, with nothing but Happy and a scarf to remember him by." Lucy hugged him a little harder as more tears fell, and they stayed like that until nightfall. "We should maybe get to sleep; we can meet your friends tomorrow okay?" Lucy suggested, "Wait, I want to show you something." Natsu replied as he took off his scarf and used it to cover her eyes, "If you want to show me something I need to see it silly," Lucy said with a small giggle but Natsu just took her hand and led her somewhere. They arrived at the top of a grassy hill, Natsu let her hand go and slowly started to undo his scarf off her face and as it fell off of her beautiful doe brown eyes, they light up with happiness as she spied the sunset in front of them; with reds, oranges, and pinks flying around creating the illusion that the sky and clouds were on fire. Lucy just stood there soaking up the sight when Natsu took her hand again, but not to lead her anywhere, because their fingers intertwined as they sat down and Lucy put her head on his shoulder and Natsu put his head on hers.

~End of Chapter 1~


	2. Chapter 2

Forest of Folklore chapter 2

~The Next Morning~

Lucy awoke to the feeling of the blanket moving and the sound of someone leaving the stone bed they were on; Lucy opened her eyes and saw a head of pink hair bobbing up and down and the boy that owned it getting up to leave the bed. Lucy reached out her hand and grabbed his arm before he could leave. "Don't go yet… c-can you stay with me f-for a bit?" Lucy asked slowly and groggily due to her just waking up, Natsu gently smiled, nodded his head and laid down next to her and wrapped his arms around her frame. Lucy gasped at the contact but then melted into the embrace after awhile, letting her senses drown in the oddly comforting scent of burnt wood and pine tree radiating off of the pink-haired snuggle monster cuddling her. Her eyes drifted closed and soon she fell back asleep, and that's when a certain blue cat decided to wake up to spy on the two and saw them cuddling with a look of peace and happiness upon both of their faces. Happy smiled, because he couldn't remember the last time he saw Natsu smile like that since his father, Igneel, left.

"Let's get some breakfast before we meet my friends 'kay?" Natsu questioned to Lucy once everyone was up and ready, "I also think we get you some new clothes…" Natsu gestured to Lucy's torn up orange dress that went down to her knees; Lucy blushed and nodded her head. Natsu then took her hand and led her to a lake where he and Happy grabbed some fishing rods and sat down by the lake and started to fish. Natsu looked at Lucy and he handed her a rod and Lucy looked at him in confusion. "Do you not know how to fish?" Lucy looked down at the ground, "No, I was never taught… dad didn't want to teach me because he thought that fishing was for the men of the house, so only Luke Onii-chan was taught." Lucy said and sniffled a bit but quickly stopped her tears from falling, "Well Happy and I will teach'cha then! Right Happy?"

"Aye sir!" Natsu and Happy attempted to teach her how to fish, although it seems like it might take a while for her to get the hang of it…

~After breakfast~

Natsu took Lucy's hand and they intertwined fingers, "Hey," Natsu asked looking towards his blonde partner, Lucy turned her head in question; "What's your name? I forgot to ask earlier…"

"Oh, it's Lucy, Lucy Heartfilia!" She said with a smile. "Lucy… Luce!" Natsu exclaimed like he hit eureka, "Luce?" said girl questioned cocking her head to one side, "Yeah, it's a nickname. Do you like it?" Natsu asked hopefully; "Yeah! I love it!" Lucy said with a grin. They continued walking in a comfortable silence until they reached a grassy plain surrounded by trees, and a brilliantly shining pond in the middle. Lucy's eyes brightened up and her smile grew, Natsu looked at her face and his smile grew. He loved seeing her happy, it made him happy. But when she was crying his heart broke, and he hated how that felt, so he promised himself to never let her cry again. He pulled out a communication lacrima and called his friends; "Hey guys, come to the 'meeting place'." Gray responded; "Why flame brain?"

"'cause I got somthi-*cough* some _one_ to show you guys" Natsu corrected, "ooh~ someone made a new friend!" Levy sang, "You better not have killed something and called us all here to see it did you?" Erza sternly asked, "N-No ma'am." Natsu stuttered, "Good."

"Ha! Flame brain's getting scared! You wuss-" Gray was insulting Natsu but was cut off by Erza; "Is this a fight I hear?" Erza asked threateningly, "N-No ma'am!" both boys responded like scaredy cats, "Good. We'll be there soon Natsu."

"Hai, see you guys soon" Natsu hung up then he looked over and saw Lucy covering her mouth with her hand giggling. "Y-you heard that?" Natsu asked, his face burning with embarrassment when Lucy nodded.

"What do you want fire face?" A voice came from the shadows and Lucy hid behind Natsu in fear, "Gray! Look at what you did! You scared her you stupid perverted snow cone!" Natsu yelled at the voice, Lucy poked her head from around Natsu to see a young boy, around the same age as Natsu, with raven black hair, and navy blue eyes. He had a sword necklace over his bare chest, and on his left peck he had a weird mark in dark blue. **(A/N: The Fairy Tail guild mark)** And instead of pants he had furry wolf legs, the same colour as his hair and eyes. Lucy slowly moved out from behind Natsu as she was building up courage, "Sorry Luce, this stupid snow monkey is Gray, he's my frenemy."

"Who are you calling a 'snow monkey' you overgrown fire lizard!?" Lucy looked scaredly at Natsu who was growling at Gray and looking ready to pounce, "Gray-sama?" Gray visibly paled as he shut up and Natsu burst out laughing, Lucy's eyes followed the sound of the voice to look at the empty pond. But then ripples appeared in the water and a burst of blue jumped out of the pond and landed on the shore. Lucy rubbed her eyes but when they opened she saw a mermaid, Lucy eyes light up, "A mermaid! Whoa!" and she ran towards it. "Gray-sama! Help Juvia!" the mermaid called out, Lucy sat down next to her and asked her questions; "What's your name?"

"J-Juvia's name is J-Juvia, w-what's yours?" The mermaid, Juvia, answered when she realized Lucy wasn't a danger to her, "my name's Lucy, you are so pretty!"

"A-Arigato Lucy, no one's ever told Juvia she was pretty… you are quite pretty yourself!" Juvia blushed and so did Lucy. After a little bit of talking and getting to know each other, the two girls were almost best friends. "Minna! Ohayo!" a small voice called from the sky and everyone looked to see a small little fairy flying towards them, "Hey Levy!" everyone else called but Lucy looked in awe at the little fairy's orange wings, and bright blue hair. When she landed she waved to Lucy, "Hi my name's Levy! I'm guessing you're the one Natsu wanted us to meet?" Lucy just nodded her head and walked around her studying her wings; "C-Can I touch them?"Levy nodded and Lucy felt the soft feathers beneath her fingers as she pet her magnificent wings. "Gomen'nasai for being late minna," A stern voice called from behind Lucy and she jumped back and hid behind Natsu. "Erza!" Levy jokingly reprimanded the voice, "you scared her!" Levy giggled. "Gomen'nasai" 'Erza' said and Lucy stuck her head out from behind her saviour to see who the voice belonged to, she saw a gust of wind surrounding where the voice had come from as it seemed to change shape, **(A/N: Erza is a shape shifter)** when the dust cleared there stood a little girl with scarlet red hair that she wore in a braid, but some of it hung on either side of her face, framing it. Her bangs almost covered her beautiful brown eyes. She had a chest plate on overtop of her white long sleeved dress with navy leggings underneath and ankle high boots on her feet. And for some reason she also had a holster with a sword in it. "You must be the one Natsu wanted us to meet," Lucy just nodded, "I see, well I'm Erza, Erza Scarlet."

"Hello Erza, I'm Lucy, Lucy Heartfilia, and this-" she froze while turning to her left, where Natsu was, and looked at him and stated to tear up. "EH? Lucy?!" Natsu looked worried, "Why are you crying?"

"HA! Stupid flame face got Lucy to cry! I guess you really are that ugly-" *BANG* *FIZZ* Erza hit Gray on the head. "Gomen'nasai, I thought you were Luke-nee…" Lucy sniffled to Natsu "Luke-nee?" The others repeated, "Her older brother, here, let me explain;" Natsu explained how he found her, all while he was hugging Lucy tightly to comfort her. When he finished explaining Lucy was also calm and everyone looked sad, but then Erza came and patted her back reassuringly; "We will help you find your brother."

"Really?" Lucy gave Erza a tear filled look of hope. Erza nodded and Lucy looked at everyone else and they all did the same thing. Lucy started to cry again, but they were tears of joy because she smiled and said; "A-A-Ariagto g-gosaimasu, A-Ariagto! Arigato!" which made everyone smile.

~End of Chapter 2~


End file.
